Pell finds pegs on which to hang a red hat

Father Anthony Fisher, whose appointment as auxiliary bishop stunned Sydney Catholics this week, is - depending on one's viewpoint - "the latest disaster to befall the church" or a brilliant archbishop-in-waiting.

Either way, it is clear that his appointment, as well as that of Father Julian Porteous, marks another clear step in the church's journey to the theological right and cements the dominance of George Pell, the former archbishop of Melbourne who is now Australia's most senior Catholic prelate.

Both those who support and those who oppose Pell, now Archbishop of Sydney, believe he is remaking Sydney's Catholic hierarchy as he did Melbourne's: imposing a faithful, very orthodox Catholicism, tightly controlled from the top.

Melbourne's newest bishop, Christopher Prowse, says Fisher is an outstanding thinker and Catholic leader, especially in bioethics, which the church considers one of the ethical lightning rods in the developed world.

But Fisher - who is in England and could not be interviewed - is not universally admired. "He's such a conservative thinker that he's got his answers before he has his questions," said one leading Sydney Catholic. Others raised his lack of pastoral experience in parishes.");document.write("

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These fears are unfounded, according to Warwick Neville, principal researcher for the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference and a close personal friend. "How could anyone be overly anxious at having one of the brightest priests around as bishop?" he says.

"No pastoral experience? His Dominican community runs one of the largest parishes in Melbourne, Camberwell. He has supplied in parishes almost every other week, been with students for a long time, and had daily and intense ministry in hospices and hospitals."

Fisher, a Pell protege in Melbourne, is founding director of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family, a leading scholar, and well-known as a spokesman for the church on bioethical issues. Originally from Sydney, he was a champion schoolboy and university debater. He joined the Dominicans in 1985, was ordained in 1991, then did his PhD at Oxford University. He is still only 43 - the age that the ancient Romans considered one's prime, the age one should be consul.

Even if reservations in Sydney about Fisher himself are allayed, many will continue to resent the process by which he was appointed, which bypassed normal consultation. Although bishops are nominally appointed by the Pope, there is no doubt these are Pell's nominees.

Auxiliary Bishop Pat Power of Canberra yesterday criticised the secrecy of the process. "Of course there needs to be confidentiality, but there's such a thin line between that and secrecy."

He said he found Fisher impressive, "but it stretches my imagination to know how he would have come out of the consultation process in Sydney because he's not known there".

A Melbourne theologian was more scathing: "If priests in Sydney had been consulted, neither of these (Fisher and Porteous) would have come in the top 200."

Brian Scarlett, associate professor of philosophy at Melbourne University and a leading Catholic layman, asks: "What does it say about the quality of Sydney clergy? Was there no one there worthy of being tapped on the shoulder and given field rank?"

Scarlett says the appointment risks the kind of alienation of the clergy that he believes happened when Pell was in Melbourne. Pell, he says, is insufficiently catholic (in the sense of diverse): "He's demoralised the clergy down here, and now he's doing the same up there."

There are also implications for the bishops' conference, with conservatives now entrenched in the key archdioceses of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

It is widely believed that Pell will get his cardinal's red hat soon and be given a Vatican department - depending on how long the frail John Paul II lives, and who replaces him. He could also stay in Sydney for a while as cardinal, grooming Fisher as his replacement.

Nevertheless, Sydney liberals admit Pell has been relatively restrained in his two years in the city. He has not moved overtly against those who disagree with him - he lets them wither on the vine or leave, then appoints people of his own mind.

Which leads back to Fisher. He will have to move slowly, and his main early role may be to bolster Pell's emphasis on moral theology. It seems a glittering career awaits, but so do formidable challenges.